


Power Struggle

by RiBread



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Nadiya does some stupid shit but her girlfriend loves her anyway, TAZ Commitment, emphasis on the fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:47:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21690688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiBread/pseuds/RiBread
Summary: It was 5:30 am, and Mary Sage was wide awake and in dire need of attention from her girlfriend.
Relationships: Nadiya Jones/Mary "Space Cadet" Sage
Kudos: 3





	Power Struggle

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to tumblr

It was 5:30 am, and Mary Sage was wide awake and in dire need of attention from her girlfriend.

She padded into the apartment’s tiny kitchen and cracked open a Mountain Dew– hey, she wasn’t sleeping anyway– and went through the short list of places Nadiya Jones could be at this time. Top on the list was always her lab, but Mary did a cursory check of a few other places first. The bedroom she knew was empty, since she’d woken up there half an hour ago breathlessly clawing at the cold sheets on the other side of the bed, shaken from a dream she didn’t really want to remember. She rattled around the rest of the apartment, kicking open bathroom and living room doors alike with little regard for privacy. Nadiya sometimes compared her to a cat, with her habit of ignoring social convention, which Mary only pretended to resent. However, both rooms proved to be deserted, so Mary Sage found herself at the heavy metal door to Nadiya’s lab, a re-purposed apartment a floor down from theirs Nadiya had bought out with her absurd money and resources and furnished into a fully functioning laboratory. Mary was still getting used to that– just being able to DO things, instead of scrounging money for months and living on convenience store snacks. They still mostly did that, since neither of them cooked much, but the point was they didn’t HAVE to.

Mary knocked on the door, ignoring the handle and the electronic keypad to one side. Nadiya pretty much always kept the door locked when she was working, and while they both knew Mary could get in if she wanted to, it was Nadiya’s space, and one that Mary respected. She knew her girlfriend didn’t like to be surprised or interrupted too much if she was really focused. When there was no response for a few moments, she knocked again.

“Hey Nad? It’s me. I couldn’t sleep.”

Silence, except for the clinking of lab equipment.

“Nad? C’mon, you need to come cuddle me. I’m like a cat, right? That’s what you always say.”

This time there was a small answering grunt, but not much else, and Mary fidgeted, pushing back the urge to pick anxiously at her skin. She felt kind of bad for interrupting Nadiya’s clear hyperfocus, but the longer she was awake and alone the more anxious and paranoid she felt. It was time to pull out the big guns.

“…Nad, I had that dream again.”

This time, even the clinking halted for a moment. Then a weak, almost slurred voice from within the lab finally spoke.

“…Mary? ‘S that you?”

Mary felt her pulse speed up, and her fingers began to erratically scratch at her opposite forearm before she could stop them. “Yeah, it’s me. Nadiya, are you okay?”

There was a murmur of assent from within, but it didn’t really aussage Mary’s concern at all. She was about to say something else when, from behind the door, she heard the unmistakable sound of glass shattering, followed by a loud THUD. Faster than thought, Mary’s hair was flying out of the loose ponytail she slept in, a cloud of orange static around her head, and she was in the electronic keypad, forcing the door open without even bothering to try the handle. The door slid open with a soft thunk, and Mary flew into the room and slid to her knees beside the prone figure of Nadia on the floor. Glass shards cut into her through her thin pajama pants, but she barely felt it. She pulled Nadiya’s head into her lap, feeling clammy, ashen skin beneath her shaky hands. At first, aside from a thin cut on her cheek from the shattered beaker on the floor, Nadiya seemed unharmed. However, a moment’s inspection revealed a thin trickle of blood flowing from one nostril. Mary blinked rapidly, recognizing the signs of physical strain that came with a power overload. But this had never happened to her without… help… and she’d never seen Remy or Irene collapse like this from using their powers. She patted Nadiya’s cheek over and over, fumbling for her phone with her other hand.

“Nad… Nad, wake up! Come on, wake up! Shit shit shit shit…” She scrolled down her laughably short contacts list. “Should I call Irene? She knows some medical… stuff, right? Fuck, I don’t know! And what if I get Kardala? Shit!”

At her shout, she felt the woman in her arms stir slightly.

“M…mary? …Fuck. ‘M… ‘m’fine. ‘S’okay.” Mary felt some of the tension leave her in a rush, and she just stared at her girlfriend, shaking her head in disbelief.

“FINE? What part of ‘collapsing into a pile of broken glass in your lab do you call fine??? What if I hadn’t been here? What the fuck happened, Nad?”

Nadiya sighed, and attempted to sit up, but collapsed back against Mary almost immediately. “I was… working. Guess I must’ve… used my powers a little too much. I’ve been testing… the physical strain the bio-polymer puts on the body…”

“Well, I think you’ve got a result, that’s for sure.” Mary let out a snort that was half laugh, half sob, and rested her forehead against Nadiya’s. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Taking me to a bed would be nice.” While she still sounded exhausted, Nadiya had reclaimed a bit of her customary clipped and enunciated words. She lifted the back of her hand to her nose, and grimaced as blood came away on it. “You seem tired too, Mary Sage.”

“Coming from someone who looks like death warmed over right now, that’s gotta mean something.” Mary sighed, and began to slowly help Nadiya to her feet, now more mindful of the broken glass. “I guess I could try to sleep again. With you there, it should at least be better.” Nadiya hummed and turned her face to press into the curve of Mary’s neck.

“Everything’s better with you there.” She let herself relax in Mary’s hold. “And I’m tired, so if you try and use that against me when I wake up, I’ll deny it.”

Mary smiled. “I know. Love you, Nad.”

“Love you too.”


End file.
